Not a cinderella story
Class wiki #2 created by: Penny Mcwhorter In my opinion, everyone wants to believe in fantasies, but fantasies are really just make believe relationships or fairytales; when in reality this is never the case. Fairytales are exactly that, made up and fictional. In the poem “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton, she is being very sarcastic about living happily ever after in love. Anne sexton is making a point about how unreal it is to expect to find this type of love. This poem really focuses on how unrealistic it is to believe in everlasting true love without putting in any work, when in reality, any relationship has conflict and is not a walk in the park. The main point of this poem is to show how ridiculous it is to believe in fantasies and to what extreme someone will go through to find a true and everlasting love and convince themselves they are going to live happily ever after. At first, the poem talks about how Cinderella came from a wealthy family, but when her mom died and her dad married another, she was treated like a servant and left to be the maid. Cinderella had to take care of the stepmother and two stepsisters. The poem quotes “Her father brought presents home from town, but jewels and gowns for the other women but the twig of a tree for Cinderella” (pg.695 Sexton). With Cinderella being treated so poorly, her imagination was extreme. She apparently planted the twig tree and it grew to be beautiful and had a white dove that sat in the top of it all the time. The dove would drop presents down to Cinderella. Anything she wished for she would get. I believe this part of the poem represents how Cinderella had start to daydream about being somewhere else, and was dreaming about finding a prince, so she could escape the horrors of the stepmother and live happily ever after. In the next section of the poem, it goes on to talk about the ball and how the prince is looking to find a wife. This was already a dream of Cinderella’s, so when the stepmother would not let her go to the ball she went to the dove and wished to go. The poem quotes “The bird dropped down a golden dress and delicate little gold slippers” (pg. 695 Sexton). This is definitely made up and lets you know that it is a fairytale. There is no way a bird can grant you wishes, and drop you a dress down to win the prince’s heart at a cry out for help. This is very fictional and lets the reader see to what extreme Cinderella is willing to go through to go the ball and meet the prince, so she can get out of the wicked house. After Cinderella and the Prince meet, he dances with no other girl. He has chosen Cinderella to be his wife, but she has to go back home. The prince is unaware of who Cinderella is at the moment, so when she disappears in thin air, he is thinking this is too good to be true, but I am going to find my true love regardless of what it takes. The poem quotes “Now he would find whom the shoe fit and find his strange dancing girl for keeps” (pg. 695 Sexton). This goes to show how far someone will go to find their true love, even when it usually does not exist or even come close to being this perfect. Finally, the poem talks about how the two stepsisters amputated parts of their body, to make the Prince think they were the ones the shoe belong to. The poem mentions “The eldest went into a room to try the slipper on but her big toe got in the way so she simply sliced it off and put on the slipper. The prince rode away with her until the white dove told him to look at the blood pouring forth. That is the way with amputations. They just don’t heal up like a wish. The other sister cut off her heel but the blood told as blood will” (pg. 695 Sexton). This part of the poem, shows in detail, what someone will go through to hold up false pretenses and try to trick someone into loving them. These two sisters really go to extreme to make the prince fall for them. Amputating parts of your body to be with someone is to an extent insane. Once again, this poem shows how unrealistic it is to desire someone in this way and that having feelings of everlasting true love is not a real idea. In the story “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton, she is being sarcastic and is wanting to make the reader believe it is ridiculous to believe in everlasting love. She makes it real obvious that the truth behind love is that it is hard work and there is not a Cinderella story with everlasting true love and a happy ending. Any person that believes in this type of love, is just setting themselves up for heartache and disappointment because fairytales do not really exist. This poem also demonstrates what extreme someone will go through to feel this type of emotion when in love.